Writing the Rockies Annual Conference

Courses

The 19th Annual Writing the Rockies Conference will take place Wednesday, July 18 to Sunday, July 22, 2018. As of early February, almost all major speakers have been arranged and details will begin to appear on this page shortly.

The schedule is currently under construction and most pages are not yet accurate, but should be up-to-date by February 15.

Here's a teaser: this year's presenters include an opening night keynote welcome from Mark Todd, the founder of the Graduate Program in Creative Writing and recent recipient of the Karen Chamberlain Award for Lifetime Achievement in Colorado Poetry; Patrick Pexton, former Ombudsman of the Washington Post, who will deliver the creative nonfiction keynote; and Ned Balbo and Jane Satterfield, who will together deliver the poetry keynote. There will also be presentations by playwright and actor Kim Nuzzo, who will perform an original one-man play about Walt Whitman, "Multitutdes," co-written with Valerie Haugen Nuzzo; a substantial revision of last year's opera workshop presentation, "Lottie Silks," with libretto by GPCW alumna Enid Holden, music by Jay Parrotta, music direction by Ben Makino and stage direction by Andrew Sellon; a seminar on writing rhyming children's picture books by four-time Emmy winner (and last year's screenwriting keynote speaker) Mike Reiss; presentations in the Poetry Symposium by Jan Schreiber, Emily Grosholz, Tyson Hausdoerffer, Fred Turner and many others; and much, much more.

We anticipate having registration open by about January 15. Please check back regularly.

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Welcome to the 19th Annual Writing the Rockies ConferenceWednesday, July 18 -- Sunday July 22, 2018

"Something happened to literature over the last couple of hundred years that pulled it apart into sub-genres, fragments, refined technical or theoretical jargons, specialized subject areas, social and political enclaves--and divided the rough consensus that held together the audiences of Dante, Shakespeare, Goethe and Melville. Writing the Rockies is a blazingly imaginative and very successful essay at bringing it all back together. In the spectacular valley of the Gunnison each summer some of the best conversations about literature in all its forms are going on, together with a new perspective on our civilization and a very old pleasure in the beauty of the word." Frederick Turner, Founders Professor of Arts and Humanities at the University of Texas at Dallas

Now in its 19th year, Writing the Rockies is one of the region's preeminent writers' conferences. It takes place each year during the last long weekend of July as part of Western's low-residency Graduate Program in Creative Writing, and like that program offers events in poetry, genre fiction, screenwriting for film & TV, publishing and creative nonfiction.

The conference is co-sponsored by Western's Department of Communication Arts, Language and Literature and welcomes beginners, students, published writers in all genres, editors, teachers, and anyone else who believes in the magic and power of the written word.

Set in the beautiful Gunnison Valley of the central Colorado Rockies on the campus of Western State Colorado University, the conference offers a wide range of workshops, lectures, seminars, readings, and special events that create an intense, collegial writers' community and retreat across four days. The conference includes a book fair featuring hundreds of titles by the speakers and presenters.

Conference faculty are highly distinguished and have published in every genre imaginable, including fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, screenwriting, journalism, criticism and scholarship, as well as having experience as editors, publishers and agents. In addition to enrolling in workshops or seminars and attending other events, participants can sign up for manuscript reviews and pitch sessions.

The conference is priced affordably at just $300 for standard registration before July 1, and scholarships are available for educators, students and residents of the Gunnison Valley.

Most participants attend the conference as a free-standing event, but undergraduate and graduate students who are not enrolled in Western's Graduate Program in Creative Writing may apply to earn credit for attendance through Western's Division of Extended Studies. Undergraduates can earn degree-seeking credit. Students with an undergraduate degree from an accredited institution can earn non-degree graduate-level credits in “ENG 510,” which is run through Western's Summer Teacher Institute, administered by Western's Extended Studies Office. Additional fees apply.

Certified public school teachers may also apply to earn credits towards recertification or professional development.